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MNHQ

What's the weirdest thing you've found when moving in to a new home? Talk to MoneySuperMarket and you could win a £300 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

415 replies

AnnMumsnet · 14/09/2015 10:32

We've been asked by the team at MoneySuperMarket to find out about the weirdest things Mumsnetters have found when moving in to a new home, which the previous owners or tenants left behind.

MoneySuperMarket say "We know moving home can be a stressful experience and sometimes it can be accompanied a few unexpected and 'interesting' surprises at the other end! Whether you've recently moved home or not, we'd love to hear your stories on the thread below.

Also - for those of you in the process of moving right now, don't forget to check out our Home Mover's hub, where you'll find a wealth of articles, videos and tools designed to get you to your own personal 'Happily Ever After' just that little bit quicker..."

So, what weird or wonderful things have you found when moving? Maybe the previous owner of your house left behind a particularly impressive stamp collection? Or perhaps you found a stack of old diaries? Or maybe you found a wig hidden in the back of the wardrobe?

Whatever you've found, MoneySuperMarket would love to hear about it!

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw* where one winner will receive a £300 Love2Shop voucher from Mumsnet.

Please note your comments may be included on MoneySuperMarket's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

*Money Supermarket are not affiliated to the prize draw and accept no liability in respect of the prize draw.
Standard Insight T&Cs apply

What's the weirdest thing you've found when moving in to a new home? Talk to MoneySuperMarket and you could win a £300 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED
OP posts:
timeforabrewnow · 16/09/2015 08:47

We found a collection of candlesticks and butterflies (all framed) in a cottage we moved into years ago.

Roraima · 16/09/2015 08:51

Getting used to the different noises of the house: the pipes, the toilet flushing, etc.

janeyf1 · 16/09/2015 08:51

I found an old LP of one of the early Now Compilation albums. The good old Eighties

Clairescottshug · 16/09/2015 09:00

Odd diary entries done by a child under the floorboards in the dining room

Ganne1 · 16/09/2015 09:05

Nailed-up wallpaper!

phillie1 · 16/09/2015 09:11

The baby name tags from hospital - how could anyone ever leave those behind

southernsun · 16/09/2015 09:19

When we moved into our current home it was a filthy mess. The attic was full of rubbish, there was dog hair everywhere and even a piece of dog poo under the fridge they had kindly left us. In amongst all this lovely stuff we were left were 2 strange things:
1 - An old sweet tin which contained a variety of mens wigs
2 - Under one of the kitchen cupboards we found a set of photo negatives which when held up to the light appeared to show the previous owners hosting what can only be describes as a swingers party.
Two weeks of living with my parents while we did countless skip runs and gutted the house and redecorated but we got there in the end.

lizd31 · 16/09/2015 09:22

My first house was a brand new build so when I got the keys to go & measure up for curtains etc I was shocked to find my fridge filled with food & dirty clothes in my washing machine. Apparently the apartment downstairs had been flooded so Barratt's allowed the guy to move into my house while it was being dried out. Needless to say I was furious.

createbeauty · 16/09/2015 09:23

A wasps nest!

gholmes724 · 16/09/2015 09:26

I remember when I moved bed sits many moons ago I found several false fingernails under the bed, all painted shell pink, I found it very creepy and somewhat grubby at the time.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 16/09/2015 09:30

A dead bat in a holiday cottage that I bought with my brother. I'd never seen a bat up close before. I still like watching them fly around at dusk.

We also found a dead bat in the house about a year ago, after the place had been fully renovated. We can't figure out how it got in as the whole place is now sealed tight.

suzyq50 · 16/09/2015 09:35

A dressmakers dummy in the loft. That was a scary moment as we thought it was a person.

MrWriter · 16/09/2015 09:39

In a really old house my DH (then DP) and his mate rented, a hand grenade! It was a running joke that someone should pull the pin!

Eventually one night at a party some eejit did. I've never seen a house empty so quickly Grin Luckily it had been diffused. [phew emoticon]

sweetsomethings · 16/09/2015 09:40

i found a whole set of baby teeth up my loft.

skyeskyeskye · 16/09/2015 10:16

when I moved into my first house, I found an ancient cot and a chair up in the loft. I left them there when I moved. no idea if they are still there now.

when I moved into my current house, we found an ancient teddy bear in the garden shed. He is still there now looking after the shed :)

bubbleybooboo · 16/09/2015 10:32

a message in the mirror that was found on the landing saying get out. next time we went into the house it was in the wardrobe when i opened it no one had been in. since then lipstick appears in odd places like smeared on windows and no one wears lipstick

barrypage · 16/09/2015 10:50

We found the previous tenants' wedding photo album dumped in the loft!

dodobookends · 16/09/2015 10:56

I found a cannonball buried in the garden of our current house.

MrsJ2000 · 16/09/2015 10:57

when we moved into our present house we were looking round the rooms and being really happy that this place was now our home. We walked into one of the bedrooms and found..................a box with a live tarantula in it. - I kid ye not. Turns out that the last owner of the house kept them as pets and he had this one in the room with the intention of carrying it in the van with him but he forgot it. We had to contact the estate agents to ask him to come back and pick it up and take it away with him.
I don't usually mid spiders .........but this was just !!!!!!!!!!!!!

prwilson · 16/09/2015 11:09

The plumbing under the sink used a manky bit of old hosepipe.

scrumpy1 · 16/09/2015 11:10

An unopened box of premium loose leaf tea! Nothing else left in the entire house except this....! We regarded it as a welcome present!

cherylann2461 · 16/09/2015 11:10

I found an old clay pipe in the cavity of the wall. Needless to say I put it back as a good omen.

TheExMotherInLaw · 16/09/2015 11:15

another thing we 'discovered' in the house of tvs and motheaten clothing was a small of gas. The previous owners hadn't had the gas cooker properly removed, they'd just turned the gas off and cut through the pipe with a hacksaw. We had no heating or any way of cooking until we were able to buy a cooker and have it installed (pre microwave days).

happysouls · 16/09/2015 11:21

This totally exposes our naivity on buying our first house...but we found a railway sleeper type block of wood in the attic that was holding the chimney up, and we found the boiler was hidden in a wardrobe in the bedroom. A homemade kind of wardrobe with a curtained front. AND we found that the shower had a sticker on it that said "non functional display model".

We paid alot more attention when we moved to our next house! However here we found a massive amount of rabbit hair and poo all around the kitchen floor and bottoms of the units. They had an indoor pet rabbit!

starfishmummy · 16/09/2015 11:30

After moving in we noticed that some of the neighbours had little doors in their back house walls, to what was once a small coal cellar. Our house had been extended so we didn't have one. A few years later we had some building work done and the builders found that actually we did have a small cellar which was all sealed up. It contained several old lawnmowers (house had no lawn) and what appeared to be home made wine. We didn''t try it!!